Cover not available

Article published In: English World-Wide
Vol. 39:2 (2018) ► pp.190–213

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Commentary pragmatic markers in Nigerian English

 | Redeemer’s University
 | Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Published online: 31 May 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00010.unu
Abstract
This article investigates the use of commentary pragmatic markers in Nigerian English. The frequency and stylistic variability of five types of commentary markers – assessment, manner of speaking, evidential, hearsay and emphasis markers – were examined in ICE-Nigeria and compared with ICE-Great Britain. The results reveal that Nigerian English has patterns of use of pragmatic markers that differ systematically from British English: speakers of Nigerian English use an overall lower frequency and a reduced inventory of commentary pragmatic markers compared to British English, show distinct preference patterns for individual pragmatic markers and demonstrate different stylistic variability in the use of pragmatic markers. Some of the preference patterns may be influenced by Nigerian languages and socio-cultural norms.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse-pragmatic features
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (56)
References
Adegbija, Efurosibina. 2003. “Idiomatic Variation in Nigerian English”. In Peter Lucko, and Hans-Georg Wolf, eds. Studies in African Varieties of English. Bern: Peter Lang, 41–56.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Adegbite, Adewale, Inyang Udofot, and Kehinde Ayoola, eds. 2014. A Dictionary of Nigerian English. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aijmer, Karin. 2008. “At the Interface of Grammar and Discourse – A Corpus-Based Study of some Pragmatic Markers”. In Jesús Romero-Trillo, ed. Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics: A Mutualistic Entente. Berlin: de Gruyter, 11–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Understanding Pragmatic Markers: A Variational Pragmatic Approach. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Pragmatic Markers”. In Karin Aijmer, and Christoph Rühlemann, eds. Corpus Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 195–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akindele, Femi, and Wale Adegbite. 1999. The Sociology and Politics of English in Nigeria: An Introduction. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alo, Moses A., and Rajend Mesthrie. 2008. “Nigerian English: Syntax and Morphology”. In Rajend Mesthrie, ed. Varieties of English. Vol. 3: Africa. Berlin: de Gruyter, 323–339.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Gisle. 1998. “The Pragmatic Marker Like from a Relevance-Theoretic Perspective”. In Andreas Jucker and Yael Ziv, eds. Discourse Markers: Descriptions and Theory. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 147–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. “The Role of Pragmatic Marker Like in Utterance Interpretation”. In Gisle Anderson, and Thorstein Fretheim, eds. Pragmatic Markers and Propositional Attitude. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 17–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anthony, Lawrence. 2015. AntConc (Version 3.4.4) [Computer Software]. Tokyo: Waseda University. <[URL]> (accessed August 10, 2015).
Bamgbose, Ayo. 1982. “Standard Nigerian English: Issues of Identification”. In Braj. B. Kachru, ed. The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 99–111.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Banjo, Ayo. 1971. “Towards a Definition of Standard Nigerian Spoken English”. Actes du 8th Congress de la Societé Linguiste de l’Afrique Occidentale, 165–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. Making a Virtue out of Necessity: An Overview of the English Language in Nigeria. Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, Laurel. 2008. The Comment Clause in English: Syntactic Origins and Pragmatic Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler, Christopher. 2008. “The Subjectivity of Basically in British English – A Corpus-Based Study of some Pragmatic Markers”. In Jesús Romero-Trillo, ed. Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics: A Mutualistic Entente. Berlin: de Gruyter, 37–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coronel, Lillian. 2011. “Patterns of Intensifier Usage in Philippine English”. In Maria L. S. Bautista, ed. Studies of Philippine English: Exploring the Philippine Component of the International Corpus of English. Manila: Anvil Publishing, 93–116.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Klerk, Vivian. 2005a. “Expressing Levels of Intensity in Xhosa English”. English World-Wide 261: 77–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005b. “Procedural Meaning of Well in a Corpus of Xhosa English”. Journal of Pragmatics 371: 1183–1205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox Tree, John E., and Josef C. Schrock. 2002. “Basic Meanings of You Know and I Mean ”. Journal of Pragmatics 341: 727–747. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce. 1996. “Pragmatic Markers”. Pragmatics 61: 167–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. “Commentary Pragmatic Markers in English”. Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 51: 115–128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuchs, Robert, and Ulrike Gut. 2016. “Register Variation in Intensifier Usage across Asian Englishes”. In Heike Pichler, ed. Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change: Insights from English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 185–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Furkó, P. Bálint. 2013. “Irish English Stereotypes: A Variational Pragmatic Analysis”. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Philologica 51: 123–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Arthur. 2005. “Philippine English”. In Tom McArthur, ed. Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 438–440.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenbaum, Sidney. 1991. “ICE: The International Corpus of English”. English Today 71: 3–7. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gupta, Anthea F. 2006. “Epistemic Modalities and the Discourse Particles of Singapore”. In Kerstin Fischer, ed. Approaches to Discourse Particles. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 243–264.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gut, Ulrike. 2004. “Nigerian English – Phonology”. In Bernd Kortmann, and Edgar Schneider, eds. A Handbook of Varieties of English. Amsterdam: de Gruyter, 813–830.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Nigerian English Prosody”. English World-Wide 261: 153–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gut, Ulrike, and Lillian Coronel. 2012. “Relatives Worldwide”. In Marianne Hundt, and Ulrike Gut, eds. Mapping Unity and Diversity World-Wide. Corpus-Based Studies of New Englishes. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 215–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gut, Ulrike, and Robert Fuchs. 2013. “Progressive Aspect in Nigerian English”. Journal of English Linguistics 411: 243–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Igboanusi, Herbert. 2010. A Dictionary of Nigerian English Usage (2nd ed.). Berlin: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jibril, Munzali. 1986. “Sociolinguistic Variation in Nigerian English”. English World-Wide 71: 147–174. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kärkkäinen, Elise. 2010. “Position and Scope of Epistemic Phrases in Planned and Unplanned American Speech". In Gunther Kaltenböck, Wiltrud Mihatsch, and Stefan Schneider, eds. New Approaches to Hedging. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 203–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lange, Claudia. 2009. “‘Where’s the Party yaar!’ Discourse Particles in Indian English”. In Thomas Hoffmann, and Lucia Siebers, eds. World Englishes – Problems, Properties and Prospects. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 207–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “The ‘intrusive as’-Construction in South Asian Varieties of English”. World Englishes 351: 133–146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liao, Silvie. 2009. “Variation in the Use of Discourse Markers by Chinese Teaching Assistants in the US”. Journal of Pragmatics 411: 1313–1328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, James R., and Peter R. R. White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martínez, Ignacio. M. P. 2011. ‘‘‘ I Might, I Might Go I Mean It Depends On Money Things and Stuff’. A Preliminary Analysis of General Extenders in British Teenagers’ Discourse”. Journal of Pragmatics 431: 2452–2470. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogoanah, Felix. 2011. “The Pragmatic Roles of as in in Nigerian English Usage”. World Englishes 301: 200–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogoanah, Felix, and Dele Adeyanju. 2013. “The Contextual Implications of ‘like’ and ‘as in’ as Pragmatic Markers in Nigerian English Usage". Journal of the Nigerian English Studies Association 161: 41–56.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oh, Sun-Young. 2000. “ Actually and in fact in American English: A Data-Based Analysis”. English Language and Linguistics 41: 243–268. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016a. Introduction: Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change. In Heike Pichler, ed. Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change: Insights from English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
, ed. 2016b. Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar. 2003. “The Dynamics of New Englishes: From Identity Construction to Dialect Birth”. Language 791: 233–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. “How to Trace Structural Nativization: Particle Verbs in World Englishes”. World Englishes 231: 227–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simon-Vandenbergen, Anne-Marie, and Karin Aijmer. 2007. The Semantic Field of Modal Certainty. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C., and Richard B. Dasher. 2002. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valentine, Tamara. 1991. “Getting the Message across: Discourse Markers in Indian English. World Englishes 101: 325–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Hans-Georg, and Herbert Igboanusi. 2003. “A Preliminary Comparison of some Lexical Items in Nigerian English and Cameroon English”. In Peter Lucko, Lothar Peter, and Hans-Georg Wolf, eds. Studies in African Varieties of English. Bern: Peter Lang, 69–81.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (32)

Cited by 32 other publications

Dahunsi, Toyese Najeem, Oluwayomi Rosemary Olaniyan, Ayobami Adetoro Afolabi & Richard Akano
2025. Trust-indicating pragmatic markers in selected African englishes. Journal of Pragmatics 236 ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Gupta, Deepti
2025. 2018–19: Exploring the Territory. In Evolution of English Language Teaching, ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo
Jowitt, David & Kingsley O. Ugwuanyi
2025. Nigerian English research: Developments and directions. World Englishes DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke & Ulrike Gut
2025. Pragmatic variation across the New Englishes. Journal of Pragmatics 243 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka & Samuel Alaba Akinwotu
2025. Investigating the Pragmatic Functions of Nigerian English-Based Proverbs: A Corpus-Driven Method. Corpus Pragmatics 9:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka, Ulrike Gut & Folajimi Oyebola
2025. Apologising in Nigerian English. World Englishes DOI logo
Gut, Ulrike, Foluke Unuabonah, Florence Daniel, Anika Gerfer, Rotimi Oladipupo & Folajimi Oyebola
2024. Offers in Nigerian English. Lingua 303 ► pp. 103701 ff. DOI logo
Olatoye, Temitayo
2023. Irregular verb morphology in Nigerian English. World Englishes 42:4 ► pp. 642 ff. DOI logo
Olatoye, Temitayo
2025. The Americanization of Nigerian English spelling and punctuation. World Englishes DOI logo
Olayinka Unuabonah, Foluke & Folajimi Oyebola
2023. “He’s a lawyer you know and all of that”. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 44:1 ► pp. 61 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka & Oluwateniola Oluwabukola Kupolati
2023. The pragmatics of ‘it is well’ in Nigerian English. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 59:1 ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Akinola, Aderonke & Rotimi Oladipupo
2022. Word-stress free variation in Nigerian English. English Today 38:3 ► pp. 165 ff. DOI logo
Collins, Peter Craig
2022. Comment markers in world Englishes. World Englishes 41:2 ► pp. 244 ff. DOI logo
Collins, Peter Craig
2025. Infinitival and Gerund-Participial Catenative Complement Constructions in English World-Wide. Languages 10:6 ► pp. 134 ff. DOI logo
Gut, Ulrike & Foluke O. Unuabonah
2022. Requesting Strategies in Nigerian and British English: A Corpus-Based Approach. In Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities, ► pp. 687 ff. DOI logo
Honkanen, Mirka
2022. “This word no get concrete meaning oo”: Pragmatic markers in Nigerian online communication. Journal of Pragmatics 202 ► pp. 93 ff. DOI logo
Ugwuanyi, Kingsley O.
2022. (Socio)linguistic indices of the codification of Nigerian English. Language and Linguistics Compass 16:10 DOI logo
Westphal, Michael
2022. The Multilingual Pragmatics of New Englishes: An Analysis of Question Tags in Nigerian English. Frontiers in Communication 6 DOI logo
Deuber, Dagmar
2021. David Jowitt, Nigerian English (Dialects of English 18). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2019. Pp. x + 242. ISBN 9781501512728.. English Language and Linguistics 25:3 ► pp. 671 ff. DOI logo
Honkanen, Mirka & Julia Müller
2021. Interjections and emojis in Nigerian online communication. World Englishes DOI logo
Oladipupo, Rotimi O. & Foluke O. Unuabonah
2021. Extended discourse‐pragmatic usage ofnowin Nigerian English. World Englishes 40:3 ► pp. 371 ff. DOI logo
Rüdiger, Sofia
2021. Likein Korean English speech. World Englishes DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke O. & Rotimi O. Oladipupo
2021. Bilingual pragmatic markers in Nigerian English. World Englishes 40:3 ► pp. 390 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka, Adebola Adebileje & Rotimi Olanrele Oladipupo
2021. Intensifier Usage in Nigerian English: A Corpus-Based Approach. Corpus Pragmatics 5:3 ► pp. 335 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka, Folajimi Oyebola & Ulrike Gut
2021. “Abeg na! we write so our comments can be posted!”. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 31:3 ► pp. 455 ff. DOI logo
Bernaisch, Tobias
2020. Hedges and Gender in the Inner and Expanding Circle. In Gender in World Englishes, ► pp. 94 ff. DOI logo
Hundt, Marianne
2019. Corpus-Based Approaches to World Englishes. In The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes, ► pp. 506 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka
2019. Frequency and Stylistic Variability of Discourse Markers in Nigerian English. Corpus Pragmatics 3:3 ► pp. 249 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka
2021. “Oya let’s go to Nigeria”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 26:3 ► pp. 370 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka
2022. ‘Mehn! This wins the award’. English Today 38:3 ► pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka & Rotimi Olanrele Oladipupo
2018. “You're not staying in Island sha o”: O, sha and abi as pragmatic markers in Nigerian English. Journal of Pragmatics 135 ► pp. 8 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2020. World Englishes on the Web [Varieties of English Around the World, G63], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue